Assassin's Creed (2017) - Film Review
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons & Ariane Labed
Screenplay: Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper & Bill Collage
Directed By: Justin Kurzel
Certificate: 12
We
seem to have entered a time where Hollywood is having another crack
at trying to make video games into movies. In the past twelve months
alone, we've had Warcraft, The Angry Birds Movie
as well as a very poorly distributed Ratchet & Clank
movie. To top that, there are plans for another Tomb Raider
film, as well as Minecraft and Sonic The Hedgehog
films. Yet with all this renewed interest in adapting video
games into movies, we're still yet to see one that the majority of
people can honestly describe as good. But now we have an Assassin's
Creed movie, and speaking as a fan of the games (the earlier
ones at least), this is probably the game series that has the most
material that can make the jump from game to film. So could we
finally have a good video game movie here?
In
2016, Callum Lynch is about to be executed for murder, but his
execution is faked by the Abstergo Foundation and he is kidnapped and
taken to their facility. Abstergo, a front for the modern day Knights
Templars, are searching for a powerful object known as the Apple Of
Eden, and need Callum's help to find it. Plugging him into a machine
known as the Animus, Callum unlocks and relives the genetic memories
of his assassin ancestor, Aguilar De Nerha in the 1492 Spanish
Inquisition. Only through reliving the life of Aguilar can Callum
find the Apple of Eden...
My
first of several problems with Assassin's Creed becomes
apparent within minutes of starting. The sad thing about this film is
that it can frequently come across as very emo, and it can often look
either dull, washed out or uninspired. Sometimes this problem can be
found in the games, and what with the dark tone and the petulant love
of menacing hoods, I suppose there is a bit of emo to be found in the
Assassin's Creed franchise as a whole, but here it's turned up
to eleven. I should have seen it coming really once I heard that
hideous Kanye West song in the first trailer, the effect of which is
replicated when an incredibly out of place bit of rock music plays
over the opening titles. The film did not need to look this dull
either, as when we're in the past, the colours are just miserable
brown, or look dirty and washed out, whereas the best games in the
series are those that managed to show off the rich and bright colours
of history when your character was just running down a street. Fast
forward to the present, and the Abstergo facility either looks dull
again, or just bland and boring. I think that the effect that the
lack of colour brings much have also leached into the characters and
performances. Both Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are trying
and there are some brief glimmers of hope to be found, but their flat
and unengaging characters completely fail them. The rest of the cast
fare even worse, and I hate to have to say it about such a great
actor, but Jeremy Irons is completely forgettable as Sofia's father,
and I struggle to even remember his character's name.
However,
I will admit that even though the colours are miserable, in many
other regards, the historical sequences do feel authentic and the
lesser of two evils. The decision to have the historical characters'
dialogue performed in Spanish pays off and helps to immerse us in the
past. Meanwhile, the location filming as well as the set and costume
design look brilliant, and are where the film's hefty budget comes
into play. In an attempt to replicate some of the elements of the
games, there's a couple of the games' signature Leaps of Faith
included, which were accomplished by a stuntman performing a 125ft
freefall, and are one of the film's greatest technical
accomplishments. Another nice bit of design work, and definitely the
most interesting from any of the modern day segments, was the new
Animus design, which makes things vastly more interesting than it
would have been to just see Callum lying on a table.
Sadly
though, if you've not played the games and this is your first
experience with the Assassin's Creed franchise, then you'll
likely be left wondering what the hell is going on most of the time.
The film often gets bogged down by continuity and linking itself to
the games, and doesn't provide sufficient explanation for many of the
things it keeps referring to. It introduces and tries to explain the
centuries-long feud between the Assassins and Templars with just a
twenty-second text dump right at the start. Following that, it never
really explains how the Animus works, or even what the elusive Apple
of Eden is capable of, so it can be difficult for a new audience to
get invested. About halfway through the film, Callum even exclaims to
himself “What the f*** is going on?” and it's as though
he's breaking the fourth wall for a minute. The secret to a
successful Assassin's Creed story is that the format can only
work well if it has endearing characters and the ability to laugh at
itself to balance things out. This is why the games featuring Ezio
Auditore as the main character are generally regarded as the best
games – Ezio is a likeable, fleshed out character who brings a
slight sense of humour to proceedings. (Spoiler Warning!) By
comparison, Aguilar and his companion Maria are flat and bland, and
therefore Maria's eventual death barely provokes a reaction out of
me.
Ironically,
by trying to lift many of the things from the games, the film also
contains one of the most frustrating aspects of them. Every
time I start getting into the vastly more interesting historical
segments, we get dragged back to the present when Callum is taken out
of the Animus. It's bloody annoying as at least twice it happens just
as someone is performing a Leap of Faith, and the quick leap back to
the present just causes me to shout words I won't repeat at the
screen. Again, I suppose I should have expected this as the
production team had stated months ago that the majority of the film
would be set in the present. But when will Ubisoft get it into their
heads that very few people actually care about the modern day
segments!? I'd much rather have had the production team focus on
something else, such as the series' sense of moral ambiguity. We
refer to the Assassins as the good guys, but can they really be
described as good when they're going round killing so many people? Do
the Templars have a point – could ordered, controlled society
actually bring peace? Interesting questions like this are absent from
the film, and I really wish they weren't.
If
there's one thing I did generally like about Assassin's Creed,
and the sort of thing I'd hoped for, it was the action and combat
scenes. They were often over the top but entertainingly so, capably
directed and there were even a couple of very good full-on battle
sequences, with the carriage fight scene being very nicely done.
Within the fight scenes, you can see that they've been choreographed
in a way that attempts to replicate some of the moves from the games,
such as silent kills or leaping from the top of buildings to land on
and stab someone. It's here where trying to replicate the games
actually pays off. Occasionally the editing is a bit clunky, as the
film's age rating prevents much blood or gore being shown, which I'll
admit is a bit disappointing. But on the whole, the action and combat
are generally one of the film's more successful areas.
I
really did have hope that Assassin's Creed could be the
first genuinely good video game movie. So much was working in its
favour – an accomplished cast, budget, the original source material
– but something somewhere went wrong. There's been rumours of
several sequels coming our way, and it even ends with a bit of sequel
baiting, but if they're as much of a misfire as this, then I'm really
not interested. The best comparison I could make is that it's as
though Ubisoft have made a film of the same quality as the first
game, but what they really needed to do was skip ahead and produce
the kind of quality content found in the much-superior second game. I
won't call it bad, because there is potential here, and the cast are
clearly trying, but they're really let down, and it certainly isn't a
good film either.
Assassin's Creed
5/10